The general field of invention is electrical connector design. In particular this invention teaches an intelligent power connector that can verify itself after a connection is established. FIG. 1 shows a typical power connector prevalent in prior art. Such a connector is made of two halves 1 and 2. One of the two halves (1 in this example) is electrically connected to the electricity source and the other half (2 in this example) is connected to electrical load. Collectively, these two halves carry two or more pairs of contacts that will contact with each other when the two connector halves mate. FIG. 1, shows two such pairs 6A-6B and 7A-7B. FIG. 2 shows the connector of FIG. 1 with its two halves mating with each other. The wiring connecting to and from the connectors to electricity source and load respectively may optionally include switch S2 and S4. These two switches offer additional means of disconnecting electrical energy. In the prior art, there is no description of any means of protecting against the situation when one or all of the contact pairs 6A-6B or 7A-7B have established only a marginal electrical contact. Such marginal connection is signified by a high value of contact resistance and has a potential of creating excessive heat at the contact interface. Each time connector halves 1 and 2 mate, the actual value of the contact resistance across the pairs 6A-6B and 7A-7B changes. Hence, in the ideal scenario, each time a power connector's two halves are put together, one should measure the contact resistance across 6A-6B and 7A-7B and ascertain if the contact resistance is small enough to not cause any hazard. However, if one has to use prior art in measuring the contact resistance of any one of the pairs 6A-6B or 7A-7B, one has to attach a voltmeter 9 and ammeter 8 as shown in FIG. 2. One of the biggest problem in this arrangement is that voltmeter 9 needs access to two halves 1 as well as 2 of the power connector. This drawback prevents an automated computerized scheme to seamlessly measure and then report the contact quality. In a computerized or automated measurement scheme, the voltmeter—or its equivalent and ammeter—or its equivalent have to report their measurements to a microprocessor or equivalent control unit, which can combine these two measurements into contact resistance.
This drawback cannot be solved by either:                a) Creating an auxiliary contact pair—just for the purposes of giving voltmeter access to the other element in the contact 7A-7B (or 6A-6B—whichever the case be). This auxiliary contact pair itself will need verification since any high resistance created across the auxiliary pair would falsely under-report the resistance of contact pair under verification (7A-7B in this case). This will be an unacceptable situation from the safety viewpoint.        b) Measure the voltage on either side of 7A-7B with respect to some common voltage, by two voltmeters located on two halves 1 and 2 of the power connector. This is also not feasible because the voltage difference across 7A-7B is likely to be a very small voltage. Measuring the two voltages using two independent voltmeters, as well as the inaccuracies of locating a reliable and high quality common voltage as a reference for both of these independent voltmeters will add significant inaccuracies in the overall measurement of an extremely small voltage across 7A-7B. This will render the contact resistance measurement inaccurate to the point of being unusable.        
It should be noted that above analysis equally applies to more advanced methods of resistance measurement—such as 4 wire Kelvin Bridge, all of which also need a direct access to both sides of the resistance under measurement. Consequently, the limitation posed in prior art continues to hamper any direct measurement of resistance of a contact pair.